


True North

by ajsolomon14



Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 15:16:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajsolomon14/pseuds/ajsolomon14
Summary: The burning question: Why does Steve stare at his compass with Peggy's picture in Endgame?Here's the answer.





	True North

The compass was Steve’s father’s. His mother gave it to him when he was young so that he would have something of his dad’s. When he was a teenager, he took a photo that he had drawn of Bucky and put it in the compass, and showed it to Bucky.

“The hell, Stevie? Why’d you stick me in there?” Bucky asked.

Steve smiled at him. “Well,” he said. “The picture is above the North part of the compass, and you’re my true North, so I thought it was fitting.” 

Bucky couldn’t stop the blush that came over his face at Steve’s words. “You sap,” he muttered, but Steve could tell he was pleased.

The years passed, and Steve always kept it close. When he met Peggy and she rocked his world, he couldn’t help himself and had to put his picture in the compass too. When Bucky saw it for the first time after he’d put it, Steve was worried he’d have an issue. But Bucky only gave him a knowing look and told him later that it was okay.

“I knew you liked her, could tell by the way you were lookin’ at her. I don’t mind that ya put her picture in there. ‘Sides,” he added with a shrug. “Won’t make anyone wonder why you got a picture of a guy in there either.”

“You're still my one guy, Bucky, always will be.”

When Steve woke up in this strange new world, SHIELD gave him back his belongings, those that had been in the plane with him when it went down. One of them had been his compass. He was so glad to have it back, and, as soon as he was alone, he opened it up.

It took a few tries to get it open, because the cold had warped the metal, and he tried it with increasing urgency, until it finally popped open. And there was Peggy, smiling up at him with that secretive little smile that always seemed to him to say “I know something you don’t.”

Steve wanted desperately to try to pull Peggy’s picture out, to look at Bucky’s like he had after what had happened at the Alps. But he knew it was an impossibility. The casing of the compass had changed and warped just slightly enough that he knew he wouldn’t be able to get either picture out without ripping one or both. Tears pricked at his eyes as he rubbed his thumb over Peggy’s picture, but he stopped when he felt a wrinkle beneath his thumb.

There was no wrinkle in Peggy’s picture, so he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, until he had a sudden flash of recollection. When he had pulled Peggy’s picture out to look at Bucky’s after he fell and started crying, some of his tears had fallen on Bucky’s picture, and when they dried, it was slightly wrinkled. Steve smiled sadly as he remembered.

“Well,” he said as he stared down at the woman he’d loved, and imagined behind her the man that he loved even now, “at least I know that you’re always there.”

Time passed. Steve became accustomed to living in the 21st century. After the madness of DC, though, he found himself pulling out his old compass more and more, and rubbing his thumb over that little wrinkle, hoping and praying that Bucky would be okay and come back to him.

Then Thanos and the end of the world began. And Bucky was.... gone. And Steve was lost lost lost. He’d lost everything, all over again. And this time there was just too much devastation to move on, to even try to.

And then there was a chance. They had a plan, and if it worked, everyone would be back. Bucky, his best friend, his love, his world, his True North, would be back. So, right before it all began once more, all he could do was stare, not at Peggy’s picture, but at Bucky’s that he couldn’t see, but knew was behind it. 

And all he could do was hope.


End file.
